FicWad

Title: Unexpected Places
Author: MakaiKitty
Rating: PG-13/R
Category: Original Fantasy, "Unexpected Places" storyline
Pairing: Garrett/Kinder, slight Aviann/Lisbet
Warnings: Slash, M/M, angst, H/C, daemons, language, implied (past) violence/child abuse, implied (past) Non-con
Distribution: My website, My LJ and any LJs I choose to post at, AFF.net, FicWad, and DeviantArt. All of my accounts are under the user name MakaiKitty. If you'd like to use it just let me know.
Disclaimer: The characters, daemon realms, and situations in this story are all original and belong solely to MakaiKitty. Please don't steal, borrow, take, or otherwise use anything from my fics.
Updates: Just join my YahooGroup to be informed of any updates to this or any of my other fics - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/makaikittyfics
Word Count: 18,979 words
Status: Complete

Unexpected Places

"So, you're finally awake."

Dark blue eyes flew open, a slight body shooting upright, and the instant that he did the daemon regretted ever having moved. He gave a pained groan, flopping back onto the ground, covering his eyes with one arm. His dreams had been plagued by darkness, but it seemed a preferable option to the dizziness and pain that he suffered now.

Only after his vision ceased to swim did the surprise begin to register. His head hadn't hit the hard ground when he'd laid back. In fact, there was a soft pack serving as a pillow under him, and behind his closed eyelids a warm fire danced and crackled. Then he remembered a stranger atop him with a knife to his throat. Remembered being told by that same stranger that he was safe, at least for the time being... and then nothing.

"Try not to sit up too quickly." The voice was soothing, as was the slightly calloused hand that brushed the hair away from his face, and despite his instincts he found himself calming under the gentle attentions. "You didn't hit your head when you fell, but you have been out for a couple of hours, so you probably shouldn't move around too much just yet."

The voice was right, and for long moments he did just as he was told, neither trying to move nor opening his eyes. Curiosity, however, eventually won out. When he finally felt that he could open his eyes without pain the daemon looked up to see a tall, slightly muscular blond man with soft green eyes filled with concern leaning over him. The man smiled at him when he opened his eyes, and it was such an unexpected and sincere gesture that he couldn't help but smile back, albeit weakly.

"That's better." Garrett said when he saw the answering smile. He reached a strong arm behind the dark haired daemon's shoulders, his smile faltering when he felt the other tense at the touch, but he succeeded in helping him sit up none the less. "Here, lean against the wall and I'll go get you some water."

He had to cough twice to clear his throat, but the daemon finally managed a strained, "Thank you."

It only took Garrett a moment to return to the other man's side. He'd been sitting watch over the daemon since he had passed out, ready to help him when he finally woke, hopping that it was just a mixture of exhaustion and poor conditions that had caused the other to fall unconscious. The fact that he'd woken up within only a few hours had Garrett feeling better about the situation already. He wasn't sure what he would have done had he not woken soon. After all, he was his village's best hunter, not a healer.

He held out the canteen for the other to take, but when his grip seemed to falter and he nearly dropped the container Garrett helped him to hold it while he drank, wincing slightly when the body he touched tensed again under his hand.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Garrett said quietly, trying to comfort as best he could. "I meant what I said, you're safe with me."

"I'm sorry." A slight blush stained grey skin. "I didn't mean to imply-"

"No, it's okay." Garrett moved to sit by the fire, wanting to give the obviously skittish daemon a little space. "I just wanted you to know that you don't need to worry."

A nod and a weak smile were his only answers.

"So, what's your name?"

"My name?" Garrett had thought it a simple question, but the blue haired daemon seemed to be completely caught off guard by it for a moment. He blinked a few times, his eyes impossibly wide, before tilting his head to the side and answering quietly. "My name is Kinder."

"Kinder, huh? That's a nice name." Garrett nodded as he spoke the foreign name for the first time. "I'm Garrett. Pleased to meet you."

After the introductions the two men fell into silence, the storm outside the only sound for a long while, but then Garrett broke the silence by asking the question that he'd wanted to have answered since he had first laid eyes on Kinder. "So, who was it that hurt you?"

"Hurt me?" Kinder tried to sound surprised, but Garrett didn't believe him for a second. "I don't know what you're talking about. I was attacked by a pannoria a few days back." He used his dark hair to shield his face as he spoke, hopping that Garrett would accept his explanation and leave the subject alone. "I'm also very clumsy. Really. Most of my wounds are my own fault."

"I don't believe you." Garrett was nothing if not direct. "If you'd run into a pannoria alone then you'd be dead. And those wounds, most of them anyway, aren't from tripping in a darkened cave." Then, his voice growing softer, he spoke of what had bothered him the most when he had been tending to the other man's wounds while he was unconscious. "Besides, you talk in your sleep."

Kinder's eyes grew wide again as he looked up at Garrett, distress heavy in his dark blue gaze. "Please, leave it alone. I beg of you. It's none of your concern."

"When his people are suffering it is always a king's concern."

"You're a king?"

"Well, I will be soon." Garrett looked at the other man as if daring him to laugh, but Kinder only shrugged and then winced as the movement caused him some slight pain.

"But I am not one of your own. I belong to no one." He almost sounded regretful in the face of this simple fact. Then, as if considering something new, his mood seemed to lighten and Kinder looked once again directly at Garrett. "If you're going to be their king," Kinder struggled to sit up straighter, pleased to have something to talk about other than himself, "shouldn't you be back with your people?"

"I'm here to save them." Garrett sounded so sure of himself that Kinder had to believe that the other man would succeed. It brought a smile to his cracked lips. "The elders set me to a task that will enable me to do just that."

"Oh?"

"My village has been under the control of Eazhannt the Sand Wyrm for many centuries." Garrett told the story as it had been passed down to him. It was a tale that he had heard many times. "Once he was kind to our village and protected it's people and the land with all of his heart. We prospered, were at peace, and our magicks became renowned across the realm. Then, more than a century ago, our tribe came under the control of a cruel and corrupt king. He had killed the previous ruler and none in the village were strong enough to stand against him when he declared himself our leader." Although they had only been speaking for only a short time Kinder had already noticed that Garrett was a honest soul, his emotions written across his face whenever he spoke. The sudden fierceness in Garrett's eyes told Kinder clearly that had the other man been alive at the time he would have surely stood in this corrupt king's way, whether he was strong enough or not. It made Kinder like the determined warrior all the more. "That was when the wyrm turned against us. He started demanding sacrifices of our most beautiful young maidens, and if we refused he would send great sand storms to batter our village until it seemed that none would survive. And he said that he would not renegotiate the terms for his protection until we sent a worthy king to speak with him. The king that had started it all was killed in one of the sand storms, so after that we sent some of our best men to speak to the wyrm. All of them were sent back as mutilated corpses. Lately we've had a succession of outsiders claiming to be our leader, but they have suffered the same fate."

"And now?"

"And now I will rule." Garrett said. "But first the village elders said that I must complete a task to make myself worthy. So I will do what needs to be done. My people's lives depend on it." Then, as a guilty afterthought, "And so does my sister's."

"Aren't you worried about what the wyrm will do to you?" Kinder wondered. "That you will share the same fate as the men that you spoke of?"

"It is a chance that I will have to take."

Kinder smiled. He believed him. "So, what task have your elders set for you, oh noble warrior of the sand?"

"I must find a verzacht daemon and kill it so that Japheth can make a powerful potion from it's bones."

"A /verzacht/?"

Kinder's voice grew quiet and despite the flickers of the firelight and the lightening outside Garrett thought that he saw the man's grey skin go nearly white. "You know of them?"

Kinder shook his head, his lips closed tightly, his navy hair flying about his face. Garrett was on his feet in a heartbeat, kneeling beside the other man, one hand on his shoulder and the other on his chin to force him to face him. "You know something!" It wasn't hard to guess from his reaction. "Please, tell me what it is. My search is nearly hopeless, my elders had next to no information for me, I need your help if you have it to give. If they are so fearsome as to frighten you with the mere mention of their names then I must not go into this unprepared."

"No." It was only a whisper, but it held a wealth of fear and pain in the one word. "No."

"/Please/."

Maybe it was the plea in Garrett's voice. Maybe it was the fact that this proud warrior, this would-be-king, was kneeling before him and begging for answers. Maybe it was simply that the other daemon had helped him and now Kinder owed him, but whatever the reason Kinder couldn't stay silent. He pulled his knees up to his chest and whispered so that Garrett had to strain to hear, but he told the other man what he could. "They're a cruel and heartless people. They're feared even by their own kind. They'd kill their own children if the mood were to strike them." Then, looking up at Garrett with tears in his eyes and a look that matched the warrior's own plea. "Leave them be. Nothing but pain can come from seeking them out."

"I wish that I could." Garrett said. And he meant it.

As the tears continued to flow Garrett thought that Kinder suddenly looked frighteningly small with his legs drawn close while his shabby frame shook from the effort of holding back sobs. He knew that the other man would tense at his touch, that he was a stranger to the man and that he had every right to fear him, but he could not stand to see the other in such pain. He put his arms around the smaller daemon and, after the expected moment of struggle, Kinder leaned into the warmth of Garrett's body and let himself be held.

Outside the storm raged on.

TBC ...